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Topic: How does internal " bluing"work (Read 954 times)

I am a new cheese maker. I have made a couple of 2# blues with some success.I have been a member of this site for about 1 week and have already learned alot. Previously my only source of info was ms carrol's book and anything I could find on the net. Anyway, my question is: does the internal mold production in a blue cheese come from mold spores that were inoculated into the cheese in the initial making of the cheese that by the piercing were finally given oxygen so they could reproduce in the fissures, or does piercing the rind take mold from the rind and re inoculate the interior at piercing?

Actually both. Some recipes call for the blue bacterium to be added with the starter. However, some are dusted or misted directly onto the rind after pressing. So piercing would be the only introduction into the body of the cheese.

So if I added the mold at the time of initial ripening, the spores will remain dormant inside the cheese until I pierce it in a few weeks-coool! I have so far pierced at the very time I removed the curd from the mold before placing it in the "cave". This is what the book says, and what they till you to do on many of the cheesemaking websites. But I have learned here to wait several weeks. I have just begun a new cheese and I will wait 4weeks to pierce. This "storebought" dehydrated mold is some powerful stuff! I have always used mold from a storebought piece of cheese and never tried the dryed stuff. I have far earlier (5 days in) and much more robust bluing on the surface already than I have had in the past with the mold taken from cheese.